A San Antonio-area girl suffering from a medical condition that causes constant hunger may get some relief.

Alexis Shapiro, 12, of Cibolo, underwent a "sleeve gastrectomy" Friday at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio to remove part of her stomach. Her condition, known as hypothalmic obesity, started in 2011 after she had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor.

In a series of live tweets Friday during the two-hour operation, the hospital said doctors intend to follow up later with a gastric bypass and "vagotomy," or removal of part of the vagus nerve to help control appetite.

Alexis' story has been widely followed since July 2013, when her parents, Ian and Jenny Shapiro, turned to the Internet for help to pay for surgery. In a flood of donations, strangers contributed more than $84,000 to cover the cost of treatment from Dr. Thomas Inge, a specialist in pediatric obesity at Cincinnati Children's.

The family's health insurance initially refused to cover gastric bypass for such a young patient but officials later changed their minds.

As described by Jenny Shapiro in a hospital blog post, her daughter's skyrocketing weight gain began about 2 1/2 years ago, after surgery to remove the tumor known as a craniopharyngioma.

"Alexis woke up from the surgery hungry and she's been hungry every moment since then," Jenny Shapiro wrote. "It's impossible to know if the tumor itself damaged her hypothalamus or if it was the surgery to remove it, but the hunger-regulating function of her brain went haywire."

The girl, who was a normal-weight 9-year-old before the tumor was removed, has been gaining an average of two pounds a week for more than two years, her mother said.

In the March 19 blog post, Jenny Shapiro said she hoped the surgery would be the beginning of the end of her daughter's pain and insecurities.

"I hope she won't have to endure another day feeling like she is starving. I hope she will be able to think about fun things, not just when she will get to eat next," Shapiro wrote.

"This surgery will be a success in my mind if we can achieve a better quality of life for Alexis. I hope that she will be able to get around better and not be the object of staring anymore. Her sister and brother look forward to her being able to play with them again."

The surgery began at 9 a.m. Friday, according to the hospital's twitter feed.

After discovering that her liver was larger than anticipated, obscuring the surgical team's view, the hospital tweeted at 9:52 a.m. that doctors were moving forward with a "staged approach -- sleeved gastrectomy today, gastric bypass and vagotomy at later date."

The surgery finished shortly after 11 a.m., and Alexis was moved to the pediatric Intensive Care Unit.